


chasing down a daydream

by theskyisblue, tkreyesevandiaz



Series: drunk in love [2]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Caring Eddie Diaz, Christopher's an angel for this, Disney References, Eddie is a closet-romantic we said what we said, Emotional Eddie Diaz, Evan "Buck" Buckley deserves everything, First Dates, Fluff and Humor, Implied Sexual Content, Light Angst, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Obviously something had to go wrong but, Teasing, This is so cheesy don't worry, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Unresolved Sexual Tension, both authors have no idea how to tag, self-indulgent fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:33:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24138919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theskyisblue/pseuds/theskyisblue, https://archiveofourown.org/users/tkreyesevandiaz/pseuds/tkreyesevandiaz
Summary: They haven’t gone on a first date yet.He fumbled with the spray bottle in his hand as he thought this over. Now, if it had been ten years ago, Eddie would be all over it - with his charm and lightheartedness as he impishly asked the beautiful man on a date.This was different.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Series: drunk in love [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1740730
Comments: 71
Kudos: 531





	chasing down a daydream

**Author's Note:**

> tkreyesevandiaz: The first co-written fic we’ve both done was so well received that we ended up turning it into a whole series xD These are connecting one-shots, so you do have to read the previous parts for context but thank y’all so much! And an extra thank you to those commenters who wanted more of these idiots. We didn't think we'd get past 5k but here we are.
> 
> theskyisblue: As always, self-control what? ;) Receiving such a warm response for our first fic, this series is definitely dedicated to y’all :D We love these two disasters in this house, and I think we all need some fluffy goodness after that finale. How we all feelin’, by the way? 
> 
> We hope you enjoy the second part of the series! :) And for everyone who already knows where the title's from, we love you lots ;)

In the end, they didn’t tell the rest of the team about their newfound relationship.

Not yet, anyway.

Truth be told, there really wasn’t anything to tell when Buck and Eddie finally managed to get their shit together. They went back inside, bumped shoulders again and everyone let out a sigh of relief. And that was the end of it.

There were so many things they needed to talk about, things that they couldn’t talk about at work. Regardless, Eddie had the startling feeling that something had just slipped right into place. It was similar to the way he felt when Christopher was born, even if he hadn’t been ready to be the father his son needed.

There was an unspoken agreement between them about the lines they’d draw at work (whatever had happened outside notwithstanding). They avoided any and all kind of teasing or anything that would entice the other into wanting to rip each other’s clothes off (though, Eddie wasn’t quite sure he was going to do too well with this rule, since he _always_ wanted to get Buck’s clothes off). 

When they’d find the chance to talk to Bobby, they would file their HR forms, officiating their relationship in the workplace and providing a rationale for why their relationship won’t affect their performance on the team. 

They would continue to be _Buck and Eddie_ , _Buckley and Diaz_ (until they got married of course), and still stay as attached to the hip as they always were. In the few days since they'd started dating, Eddie had come to realize that not much had changed between them anyway.

It was a little disconcerting, how much Eddie already saw his life being shared with his best friend turned _boyfriend_ , so much so that marriage didn’t seem quite so daunting as it had years ago.

But a single thought struck through all the others, randomly during a slow stint at the station, in big capitalized letters that gave him a slight headache. Not at the implication, but at the feelings associated with it. 

_They haven’t gone on a first date yet._

He fumbled with the spray bottle in his hand as he thought this over. Now, if it had been ten years ago, Eddie would be all over it - with his charm and lightheartedness as he impishly asked the beautiful man on a date. 

This was different. 

For starters, asking Buck on a date made him want to jump off a _plane_ , the thrill of the drop hopefully masking the churning in his stomach. Because Buck was different, he was _special_ , and deserved way more than a simple picnic on the beach or a traditional candlelit dinner by the waterfront. 

The other thing being that he was beyond rusty with romantic things, but for Buck, he’d try. He knew his best friend to be a hopeless romantic, and had noticed all the soft, longing smiles on his face during every save involving a couple. He wanted to bring that smile to Buck’s face when he realized that he was worth all those things too.

No. With everything they’d been through, this date had to be Earth-shattering, had to leave an _impression_ , and Eddie would be damned if he didn't make this the best date either of them had ever been on. 

Which meant hardcore, _extensive_ planning. 

It was fortunate that they lived in LA, because there honestly were a lot of different things they could do, things that Buck would love doing. So much so, that Eddie had almost created a five-page bullet-pointed essay with perfect formatting on the destinations they could visit, the museums they could see, _animals_ they could pet. The timing and prices came later, not that the latter really mattered, but he didn’t want to make it _too_ out there, just in case it made Buck feel uncomfortable. 

The planning had him burning the midnight oil for three nights, before a relatively structured schedule was successfully put in place. The locations were saved to his phone along with all required documents and other knick-knacks printed and paid for. 

Planning - _check_. 

In terms of asking...Eddie had invited Buck over for an impromptu movie night with Christopher, who, when he found out, had cheered in a manner that probably broke the eardrums of every single being in their neighbourhood. 

In hindsight, he probably should’ve asked _before_ he bought all the passes and things they needed. 

Like always, Buck arrived with take-out and a radiant smile, tightly hugging Christopher to his form at the door as his son barreled into his legs. They sat on the couch in the usual position, with Christopher in between them and the movie playing in the background as they helped themselves to pizza and popcorn Eddie had prepared beforehand. 

Unlike all the other times, when Eddie put his arm along the back of the couch, Buck _leaned_ into his touch, resting his head against his forearm and smiling when Eddie brushed gentle fingers along the sliver of exposed skin across Buck’s shoulder, just underneath the collar of his T-shirt. 

Halfway into the movie, Christopher fell asleep, a content smile on his lips as he lay with his head pillowed against Buck’s arm, glasses askew. Eddie watched, heart overflowing with affection as Buck gently moved a stray strand of hair away from Christopher’s eyes, running a thumb lightly against Christopher’s cheek. 

“I’ll go put him to bed.” Buck whispered, smiling shyly when Eddie gave him a small nod, as if he was still not quite used to Eddie trusting him as much as he did with his son. Years ago, Eddie truly hadn’t fathomed a day he would ever trust someone other than himself to care for his son the way he did, and now…

Sometimes, being proven wrong could be a blessing. Especially when it was _Buck_. 

“He really doesn’t stir at all once he goes to sleep, huh?” Buck mused, making his way around the couch to sit down again. Eddie chuckled fondly as the man didn’t even hesitate to lie down horizontally, adjusting himself comfortably in Eddie’s lap. 

Looking up, Buck gave him a toothy grin, eyes shining with mirth before turning his head into Eddie’s stomach, wrapping an arm around his waist to burrow deeper into the warmth. Eddie carded his fingers through the wayward curls, making a face at the feeling of day-old gel.

This was it. 

_Now or never_. 

“So, I was thinking...” Eddie looked down to his lap to see Buck turning his head, an eyebrow lifting in question as he pulled his face back from where it had been nuzzling into the soft fabric of his clothing. He narrowed his eyes when that familiar smirk made its way across the man’s lips, a smirk he damn well associated with something cheeky and inordinately _Buck_. 

“Dangerous.” 

Buck wheezed out a laugh as Eddie attempted to smother him back into his shirt, the man’s hands waving wildly in an attempt to escape his hold. All conversation halted in favour of a mini smother-fest, Eddie trying to quiet his own laugh to not wake Christopher in the next room as Buck tried and failed to shove a pillow into his face. 

The lack of coordination had the pillow weakly smack into his shoulder instead, and, taking reluctant mercy on his boyfriend (this beautiful Adonis of a man was his _boyfriend_ , take _that_ city of Los Angeles, state of California and the entire fucking Milky Way), Eddie relented his hold on Buck to allow him to catch his breath. 

“Like I said, dangerous,” Buck huffed, still panting slightly, eyes narrowed as they glared up at Eddie in an impressive show of faux annoyance. Even so, he made no move to sit up from where he was still laying across Eddie’s lap, hair now a rumpled mess. 

“As I was saying before being rudely interrupted,” Eddie chuckled when a hand reached up to half-hearted shove at his shoulder. “I was wondering if you were free on Friday.” 

Buck immediately stopped fidgeting, eyes widening in surprise. This prompted _Eddie_ to start fidgeting, fingers tightening around the edges of Buck’s shirt as he anxiously waited for an answer. 

“That’s...when we have a day off, isn’t it?” Buck asked cautiously, eyes fixated on Eddie’s face as if trying to read his expression. The fingers around the edge of Buck’s shirt rubbed against each other nervously.

“Do you...want to be with me? That day?” Eddie blurted, wincing at how his brain couldn’t seem to string together proper sentences. He was aware of Buck’s eyes tracking the movement as he swallowed nervously, not knowing if he could see how anxious he was. 

_You’re just trying to ask the love of your life on a first date, Eddie, it’s not rocket science._

No big deal.

“I don’t know, Eds…” Buck’s lips were twitching as if hiding a smile. Before Eddie’s heart could completely disintegrate at the words, Buck continued, “I mean, you did just try to kill me and only that day? Because I was kind of hoping I would be with you every day from now on - hey!” And just like that, all the apprehension Eddie had felt melted away as he smacked Buck’s shoulder for the scare. 

“Ass,” Eddie snorted, tugging at those damn curls lightly in reprimand, the curls that he had been itching to get his hands on since forever. “I meant a date. Let me take you out on a date.” 

There was a pause, the words seeming to finally piece together, jarring the space between them. Eddie saw Buck’s expression soften - turning oddly vulnerable, the smile on his lips more timid than compared to earlier. 

“What about Christopher? Wouldn’t he be disappointed about not getting to spend time with you?” Buck asked, and Eddie felt his heart melt even further. 

_This man_. 

“You know, I realized the other day that Christopher’s been dropping hints about us for _months._ He’s taken to suggesting spending night after night at Abuela’s and then not-so-slyly pushing me to go spend those nights with you. It’s weird. My son’s self-appointed himself as my wingman.” Eddie’s eyes trailed to the closed bedroom door just down the hall, eyes narrowing in suspicion as if Christopher was listening in on their conversation right now.

There were no poorly-hidden giggles, so they were probably safe for now. 

Buck laughed at that, tugging the back of Eddie’s neck to pull him in for a small kiss. “At least one Diaz boy is smart.” Eddie made a sound of offense at that. Pressing his fingers tighter against the warm skin that only further leaned into his touch, he leaned down to deliberately brush the tips of their noses together. 

“You’re asking for it, Evan,” Eddie warned playfully, nipping at his lip. The air shifted immediately between them, with both of their eyes darkening with desire. As hands started to lower further into uncharted territory, Eddie let out a reluctant sigh, ducking his head in defeat. “Okay, no. Not when we’ve got a snoring kid down the hall.” It didn’t really matter because they hadn’t gone all the way when it came with sex anyway, not having the time or energy. And Eddie would be damned if they had sex for the first time under time or noise constraints.

“No?” Buck’s eyebrows shot up in a show of complete innocence - Eddie knew better - before his facial expression melted into one of pure seduction.

Evan Buckley was put on this Earth specifically to test him, Eddie thought to himself as he shook his head. Nevertheless, he shifted their positions a little so Buck was lying on top of him, nestled between his legs.

It was a welcome weight, the solidness that was all Buck. It was like a heavy blanket emitting a coziness he now had the pleasure to savour, and it never failed to catch Eddie off-guard in the best way possible. There was a shit-eating grin on his face as Eddie caved, like usual.

“I love you,” Eddie murmured against Buck’s lips, feeling them curve upwards at the words. The kiss deepened, Buck’s hands moving to skate under Eddie’s T-shirt, pressing warm palms to his side. Shivers erupted on his skin where he could feel Buck’s thumb moving in circles.

He wrapped his arms around Buck’s shoulders, lazily licking into his mouth. Both of them knew that this wasn’t going to go any further tonight either, but it was nice to have this intimacy. Still, arousal skittered across his skin in bright flares of crimson as Buck rocked into him lightly.

After all, it was impossible _not_ to feel this way when Buck was kissing him like _that_.

* * *

“Are we there yet?” 

Eddie wanted to smack his head on the steering wheel at the four words that had been repeated like a mantra every couple minutes since he started driving. Affectionately, of course, because it was _Buck_ , and everything about him screamed restless puppy with a dash of hyperactive child that Eddie was shamelessly attracted to. 

“I can’t believe you’re actually even worse than _Christopher_ when it comes to a road trip. And he’s a nine-year-old.” Eddie shook his head, amused eyes darting beside him to see Buck’s face practically _glued_ to the window to try and discern where exactly they were going.

The whole scene was absolutely adorable, if he was being completely honest. It was, however, infinitely better than the first half hour of their little game. 

Because Buck, being _Buck_ , had been an absolute fucking _tease_. 

When he had found out that Eddie was in fact, _not_ telling him where they were going, he had resorted to point-blank torture to get him to talk. 

_I want to fuck you like an animal  
_ _My whole existence is flawed  
_ _You get me closer to god_

He almost forgot which gear shift to put in _drive_ and which to _reverse_ when the song suddenly blasted in full volume through the cab of his truck, Buck’s lips tipping upwards in a mischievous smirk at his reaction. 

“Ring any bells, baby?” 

_I drink the honey inside your hive  
_ _You are the reason I stay alive_

_“Eddie, I’m trying to drive.”_

Eddie shuddered when brief flashes of memories from that night hit him in a landslide, shrinking into himself when he vaguely remembered _whispering_ those words into Buck’s ear while _he_ was driving. Now, all he wanted to do was violently smash his head through the dashboard window at the sheer humiliation. 

Instead, he only opted to grip the steering wheel in his hands tighter until the blood completely drained from his knuckles, trying and failing to ignore Buck singing along to the rest of the song. At one point, he had to actually quickly swerve back into his lane as Buck started _thrusting_ his hips as best he could within the constrainment of the seatbelt, one hand planted squarely on Eddie’s thigh and only moving higher. 

_Fucking hell_. 

Thankfully, the song was only around six minutes, an impressive amount of time that Eddie had spent the entire length of it glaring at the license plate in front of him that just had to say ‘I SWA LO’ and trying to ignore the insistent pressure growing between his legs. 

And when the song _finally_ finished, Eddie had half a mind to strangle Buck to the deepest parts of hell, but one innocent flutter of his goddamn lashes had his plans flying straight out the window. 

They had passed a few road signs that could have given it away, but something told Eddie that Buck hadn’t exactly found the time to thoroughly explore LA, a fact that he would work on changing for the _both_ of them. 

Starting with their first destination. 

Shifting his gaze briefly to the man sitting in the passenger seat, who was awfully obedient since that torture karaoke experience, Eddie shook his head. 

“ _No_ Evan, to answer the same question you’ve been asking since last year, we are not there yet. I’m sure that you can see from the window you’re drooling on, that we are surrounded by cars running at 80 miles per hour, which, as you know, would be a death wish if we were to stop right now and get out of the car.” Eddie said with the utmost patience, knowing that there was a grin on his lips when Buck could only glare at him, the pout on his lips jutting out full-force. 

He looked like he was debating whether he should smack Eddie on the arm in reprimand, but smartly decided that it wasn’t worth getting into an accident for. 

That thought did nothing to stop his verbal complaints. 

“How are you able to be _this_ tight-lipped? And how have the signs not given anything away by now? We’ve been driving for _hours,_ babe.” Buck’s tone completely mirrored the ever-growing pout on his lips, which only made Eddie smile wider. He also hadn’t missed Buck calling him ‘ _babe_ ,’ which never failed to get his blood pumping harder in his veins. 

_Cool it, Diaz_ . _You are driving - you can’t expect to get some if you both die because you get turned on every time your boyfriend decides to ‘baby’ you._

“I’m a dad, I know how to keep secrets. I promise you that we’re almost there. And we’ve only been on the road for 72 minutes, my love,” Eddie teasingly corrected, knowing that Buck will counter him with a sulking remark. 

“‘ _Only 72 minutes_ ,’ he says. See what that’ll mean for us when I get my way with you. Then you’ll see what ‘only 72 minutes’ means. Only then will you know,” Buck muttered under his breath dramatically, crossing his arms across his chest to complete the petulant look. Eddie swallowed painfully at the dizzying rush of blood from the sheer amount of possibilities. 

Thankfully, LA traffic decided to take mercy on him, and instead of the 90 minutes indicated on the Google maps he had pulled up on his phone (and had stealthily angled only towards him), they arrived at their destination in a measly 80. 

“Los... Los Padres? Wait, your father owns an entire fucking forest? Eddie!!” Buck’s eyes practically bulged out of his head, and Eddie was left with a moment of utmost confusion. 

They had reached the park’s gate, and Eddie subtly passed over a printed pass to the worker, who scanned it and wished them a good day before waving them through. Buck was still silent next to him, his eyes still wide with shock as he took in everything around them. It wasn’t until Eddie read the park sign again that he began to understand what he had meant. 

Which prompted him to burst out laughing. 

He didn’t know it was possible to fall even deeper in love with someone from a casual remark, but here he was. 

“Oh, god no! The forest is named after some Catholic priests, according to Wikipedia at least. The forest was originally called Santa Barbara National Forest before they changed it decades ago. My father has absolutely no connections to this place, sorry to disappoint.” Eddie choked out through his laughter, wiping at the stray tears that had slipped out, chewing on his lower lip to stop himself from bursting into another fit of laughter at the redness tinting Buck’s cheeks. 

_Oh, the little pleasures of loving this man_. 

“Guess my Spanish needs some work, huh?” Buck said sheepishly, and Eddie couldn’t resist leaning over to press a quick kiss to the corner of his lips. 

“Which I am _more_ than willing to teach you,” Eddie whispered, teeth grazing teasingly along the shell of Buck’s ear, delighting himself in the shiver that coursed through his body. It really was like playing with fire, this teasing they did back and forth. It hadn’t resulted in anything yet, but it was fun to build up, almost like they were teenagers again.

“Come on, we have an appointment to get to,” Eddie winked, parking the car in a spot he had reserved beforehand. Buck fumbled with his seatbelt at that, getting out of the car quickly but not before shooting him another confused look. 

“Appointment? Is someone waiting for us?” Buck tilted his head, curious as always, and Eddie let out a small smile, holding out his left hand in offering. And as always, never with any hesitation, Buck took it, intertwining their fingers together. 

“Something like that.” 

Eddie could feel Buck’s gaze boring into the side of his face at his vague response, distracting himself with waving at a female worker who had spotted them making their way over, a bright smile on her face. 

There was no doubt that that woman was their guide. She was wearing an oversized green sweater and black leggings, paired with a tan safari hat atop her head and blond hair tied in a low bun at the base of her neck. Recognition dawned in her gaze as they made their way towards her, and she quickly worked to take her black sunglasses off to reveal light brown eyes.

“Good morning, gentlemen! Welcome to Los Padres National Park. I’m guessing you’re Mr. Diaz?” The woman reached out a hand, which Eddie immediately shook. Her eyes shifted to Buck quickly, the kind smile not diminishing, and not even batting an eye at their clasped hands. She had a way of putting them right at ease, which made Eddie feel so much better about this being their first stop.

“I am, and please, it’s Eddie. You must be Laura?” Eddie asked, and the worker nodded in confirmation. Eddie squeezed their intertwined hands gently, chuckling when Buck finally seemed to snap out of his thoughts, giving Laura a polite smile. He couldn’t quite contain a fond smile when Buck squeezed his hand in silent apology before he let go to shake hands with Laura. Eddie smiled as his boyfriend took his hand back near immediately. 

“I’m Buck, it’s nice to meet you.” 

“Likewise! Once again, welcome! We are so happy you have decided to choose our services. I will be your human guide for today, and whenever you’re ready, someone else has been waiting to meet you two,” Laura grinned, and Eddie knew Buck had to be absolutely baffled. He grinned at the look on his face, a little nervous to see if Buck would like the surprise.

“Wait, human guide?” Buck tilted his head in confusion, and Laura shot Eddie a knowing look, her smile turning just a touch softer. Raising two fingers to her lips, Laura blew out a loud whistle in a certain tune, stepping a little off to the side so they could see further behind her. 

Eddie knew that the wolf had shown up just by Buck’s startled gasp, his eyes having not left the man standing beside him, his ocean eyes now brightening in excitement as he practically vibrated where he was standing. Vaguely, he wished he’d recorded Buck’s reaction before deciding it was too private.

Muzzle as white as snow in contrast to its mottled grey fur ruffling slightly in the subtle breeze, the wolf padded its way towards them, a rope attached to a harness that was held by the man walking beside him. Eyes a deep blue, and tongue slightly peeking out from where it was panting slightly, it was one of the most magnificent animals Eddie had seen in awhile. 

And clearly, Buck was thinking the same thing. 

“Look! Its little paws are _black_!” Buck gushed from beside him, his grip tightening on Eddie’s hand. Eddie looked down to see that indeed, the wolf’s paws looked as if they had been dipped in black ink. The legs however, matched the grey blotchy coat the animal donned. 

The wolf was not _little_ in the least, though. 

“Buck, Eddie, I would like you to meet Cael. He’s going to be our ambassador for today.” Laura crouched down to Cael’s level, the wolf giving her hand a small nuzzle with his nose in familiarity. The man and Laura exchanged a look, before the man left with a parting smile to them all. He ruffled Cael’s fur affectionately, the wolf responding by tipping his head back gleefully, letting out a soft whine. Eddie could tell Buck was having a hard time not cooing out loud, and honestly he could relate. 

“Can we…” Buck trailed off, eyes locked on their wolf companion who seemed to be sizing him up, and Laura chuckled, nodding. 

“Of course. Cael has actually been with us the longest, and he adores having his head rubbed.” Laura winked, and Buck needed no more reason to kneel down to the wolf’s level. Eddie watched, fascinated, as the wolf padded into Buck’s space, sniffing at his palms. It seemed like he liked whatever he smelled, because the wolf let out a happy sound, burrowing his face into Buck’s chest. 

Letting out a bright burst of laughter, Eddie watched adoringly as Buck ruffled Cael’s fur, burrowing his own face into the fluffy part of the wolf’s neck. 

Mind still lagging from the sheer amount of _adorable_ in front of him, he pulled his phone out to take a few pictures of this, his heart swelling so fast he felt like he would choke on it. There was something about seeing Buck interacting with small kindred spirits that just did him in.

Actually, it was probably Buck himself.

“Wow. It usually takes a while for Cael to let anyone close enough to touch his neck, friendly as he is. He seems to really like your boyfriend,” Laura hummed, and the warmth that spread through Eddie’s chest had everything to do with the man who was laughing with Cael on the ground before him, the two now engaging in a playful nuzzling session. 

“It’s a little hard not to,” Eddie admitted quietly, looking away shyly as Laura sent him a knowing smirk. 

“Heads up, Eds!” 

Eddie looked down to see that Cael had made his way over to him now, head tipping up to gauge his reaction, as if calculating his next move. Bending down, Eddie chuckled as Cael’s head lowered with his movement, blue eyes sending a shiver through his body at the familiarity of the look. 

The staring contest didn’t last long, however, before Eddie was greeted with an armful of fur and happy chirps as Cael enthusiastically imprinted on him. Laughing in surprise, Eddie responded in kind, ruffling Cael’s fur affectionately as the wolf peeped his tongue out adorably. 

The colors of his coat shifted in the sunlight from a startling white to a dusky grey, soft and smooth. It was gorgeous, and a far better experience than Eddie had expected.

“Alright then boys, are we ready for that hike?” Laura grinned, and Cael seemed to recognize that h-word because he immediately perked up, tail moving to brush against the ground. 

“Let’s do it.” 

The weather had never been more on their side. The sun shone its warm rays that lit all of them up with warmth, a welcome feeling even for Cael as he soaked up the heat. Laura told them about a few species of plants and trees they saw on their hike, as well as a brief history of Frazier Park. It turns out that the wolf hikes were something undertaken by Project Wildsong in an effort to encourage coexistence with wolves in nature. They were all things Eddie had read briefly about but Laura dropped more tidbits and other things that they could do while they were here.

“He’s so cute.” 

Eddie turned to Buck, who, although completely enthralled with their wolf companion, had not left his side once during the hike, seeming entirely content to swing their clasped hands lightly between them as they followed Laura and Cael. 

Seeing his eyes practically _gleaming_ with joy, his hands shaking in excitement and feet that were almost _skipping_ in his steps, Eddie wasn’t sure who made a cuter profile, Cael or Buck. 

“Yeah, you are,” Eddie whispered reverently, grinning when an elbow nudged him softly. 

“Sap.” 

Laura and Cael stopped in front of them suddenly, making Buck and Eddie do the same. 

“This is one of our best scenic areas, so feel free to take some photos if you would like,” Laura said, Cael seeming to nod in agreement as he huffed out a rough sound. There had been a few places where they had taken photos, but looking out into the vast world before them with how high they were, Eddie could have sworn the image before them could have easily been a painting. 

The gentle slopes of the mountain were covered in vivid green grass, splotches of lavender dotting the far fields that Laura had pointed out earlier. The breeze carried very little of the bitter LA pollution, instead being simply fresh and clean. 

“Eddie, come on!” 

Eddie looked up from where he was pulling out the camera app on his phone to see Buck crouching down next to Cael, creating another picture Eddie knew would forever be stamped in memory. Cael’s head was resting against Buck’s cheek, eyes closed contentedly, and Buck had an arm around the wolf, a vibrant grin on his lips. When both their heads swung to face him, Eddie almost collapsed at the twin pairs of blue eyes staring right at him, his knees buckling at how _similar_ they looked. 

“Why don’t you go and join them?” Laura smiled, holding out a hand presumably for Eddie’s phone. “I promise I’m a great photographer.” Laura winked, and Eddie gave her a grateful smile before handing her the phone, making his way towards the two puppies waiting. Cael gave him a little nuzzle as he settled down on the wolf’s other side.

“Smile!” 

He didn’t know how long they had crouched there, but Cael seemed to be getting just a little restless, making a huffing sound as he laid his head completely on Buck’s thighs. That made Buck stumble from his crouching position, laughing as he toppled backwards, bringing the wolf with him as Cael let out a yelp, seeming to laugh with the man he was now half-sitting on. 

Eddie’s smile softened when Buck sat up with a loose grin, pulling Cael towards him and nuzzling their faces together. Moving closer to the two, Eddie placed a hand on Buck’s back to steady him, the other wrapping around Cael’s mid-section to take on some of the weight. 

“You okay, sweetheart?” Eddie mused, patting the wolf gently which earned him a cheekful of wet, cold nose as Cael playfully nudged his face. His eyes met Buck’s who were already looking at him, blue spheres achingly soft as they leaned forward to touch their foreheads together, Cael a welcome weight between them. 

“Always.” 

After that little fiasco, Laura handed Eddie’s phone back with a sly smile, with a little nudge and a "I took a few, you might want to check them out later." He shot her a perplexed look, but obligingly tucked the phone back into his pocket to look at them later, not wanting to miss a single moment with Buck on their first date. 

“Come on, Eddie! Cael’s getting antsy!” Buck called, and Eddie looked over to see Cael butting his head against Buck’s legs chidingly, as if to say ‘no I am not, just trying to keep to a schedule, human.’ 

Continuing their hike, and breathing in the refreshing air as they savoured a whole new part of LA, Eddie exchanged a confused look with Buck when Cael started to paw at the ground restlessly. Laura also looked down at their wolf companion, eyebrows furrowed in barely-concealed worry. 

At first, Cael just turned his head in a certain direction and perked his ears, paws stilling as he sniffed the air uneasily. It might have just been a reaction to some sort of small prey, but that thought quickly vanished when Cael let out a distressed sound, shaking his pelt. 

What _really_ tipped them off though, was when the wolf started whining, scratching at the ground as he howled towards the cliff.

Laura’s brow wrinkled in confusion as she went over to the wolf. “That’s strange, Cael never does that.” Buck and Eddie exchanged a look before following her.

Cael managed to clamp his teeth in Eddie’s shirt, pulling him towards the cliff. Suddenly, realization struck him. “He’s trying to show us something.” He quickly dislodged the wolf’s teeth from his clothes so he didn’t fall off the side either. Cael whined as he gestured his snout in that direction.

Eddie cautiously made his way to look over the edge of the overhanging rocks, feet digging into the ground for a better grip. Fear surged through him as he noticed the hopefully only-unconscious form of a body at the underside of the cliff. He couldn’t see any blood from this angle, but presumably, the metallic tang of it had set the wolf off.

“Buck,” Eddie said, gesturing his boyfriend over and shifting into first responder mode immediately. The younger man moved closer to take a look, before letting out a sharp gasp and turned to Laura quickly to ask if they had any rappelling supplies. Eddie pulled out his phone and dialed 9-1-1, taking stock of the situation.

“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”

“This is off-duty firefighters Eddie Diaz and Evan Buckley from Station 118, we’re at Frazier Park at the Los Padres National Forest. We have a middle-aged male victim who’s slipped over the sides of the mountain and is now lying prone on the back of a tree. We need immediate medical backup, no visual on a head wound, no confirmation on breathing status. Potential spinal injury.”

“Eddie?” That was Maddie’s voice, now worried to hell. Eddie winced at the sound of it, briefly wondering if any other dispatchers even took calls or if it was just Maddie. “Are you okay?”

“Hi, Maddie. Buck and I are fine, just send someone for this. We’re going to try to do everything we can, Buck’s gone to get the rappelling kit.”

“No, you two need to wait, you don’t have the proper supplies or the backup.”

“He’ll die if we don’t do anything,” Eddie hissed, almost regretting his tone to his boyfriend’s sister but right now, he was a firefighter. Buck rushed straight back with the rappelling kits, a few park rangers following him. “Buck and I’ve got backup, don’t worry.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll keep him safe, I promise.”

“And yourself too. Let me talk to my dumb brother,” Maddie shot back. Eddie smiled despite himself, holding the phone out.

“Not sure why every time we call or go on call, the dispatcher’s your sister.”

“Because she’s the best and I’m pretty sure she has some 118-sensing sister-girlfriend voodoo thing going on. Hey Mads,” Buck said, cringing at what was undoubtedly a lecture to be safe. “Yeah, I’ve got Eddie, we’re good. Okay, love you, bye.” 

He hung up on her, and passed the device back to Eddie who was staring at him with wide-eyes, along with a harness. He could have sworn Maddie had been yelling out a _"don’t you dare hang up Evan-"_ before Buck cut her off. “Buck, she’s going to _kill_ you.”

“It’s alright, I can handle it. Okay, there’s no way we can carry the man upwards. Can’t make a backboard either, but maybe we can go down to the sides of the cliff, check the damage?”

Eddie didn’t say it out loud, but they both exchanged a look that told them exactly what the other was thinking. They didn’t know how long that man had been down there, and it was highly likely that they wouldn’t be able to save him.

They set up their anchors at a nearby tree, the other forest rangers assisting with this as they geared up with climbing helmets. Eddie tried to keep himself calm at the sight of Buck in a harness. Thankfully, they’d chosen to stick to hiking-appropriate clothes, rather than some stuffy button-down.

Or heaven forbid _dress pants_ , because lord knows what he would have done if he saw Buck wearing a harness in _those_ tight seams. 

_Not the time, Diaz._

“Are you two sure?” Laura asked worriedly, fingers twisted in Cael’s fur. The wolf was looking at them similarly, head cocked as vivid, piercing eyes studied the two, uncannily human.

Buck smiled at her. “Yeah, it’s our job. We wouldn’t be able to leave him.” Their sense of duty ran too deep. 

Throwing the other end of the rope down the cliff and pulling their own lines taut, Eddie looked over at his boyfriend. “Be careful, okay?”

“You too.” He flashed a grin and gave the ranger holding his line a thumbs up. Eddie did the same to his ranger and they started their descent.

Thankfully, they had a pretty decent grip on the rocks, since it hadn’t rained in a while. It wasn’t slippery with caked mud, but there were a couple of loose ones that they had to be wary of, not wanting to carelessly drop them on the victim as they dislodged from the cliff-side.

Eddie made his way down until he was right by the victim’s head, about 20 feet down from the foot of the cliff. “Sir, can you hear me? Sir?”

There was no response. Eddie locked his line in place to swing over to the tree, carefully scrambling onto the trunk to check for a pulse and breathing.

“He’s not breathing, but there’s a very weak pulse.” 

“We’re going to have to give him CPR,” Buck said, already making his way towards them. Eddie startled in place at that, looking wildly at his boyfriend.

“Buck, he’s upside down. We don’t have the leeway to flip him, not without…” Eddie trailed off. They could easily lose their own balance, break the tree-branch, or any number of dangerous things. But from the determined look in Buck’s eyes, he knew without any doubt that they were about to perform one of the most risky CPR administrations of their entire lives. 

“We can do this. We just need to turn him over and balance him somehow onto the trunk so we can start compressions. And we have to do it fast.”

There were a lot of things to be said about Evan Buckley and his recklessness, but the one thing Eddie thought was highly unfair was that no one looked past the impulse to find the well-thought out plans. But he did, and he trusted Buck implicitly, knew that the man wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize their lives.

“Okay,” he agreed, following Buck’s lead without hesitation. He gripped the man’s shoulders tightly, making sure to wrap his legs around the trunk beneath him to stabilize himself.

It was Buck that was scaring him. He didn’t have the advantage Eddie did with the stable end of the branch lodged in the cliff. Eddie watched with his heart in his throat as Buck released a little more of his line so he could copy Eddie’s position on the far end.

“Buck,” Eddie warned. Buck huffed, looking at him with a combined spark of amusement and seriousness in his eyes. He could tell that his boyfriend was just as worried, but he was doing a _much_ better job at hiding it.

“Eddie, we’ve worked together a thousand times since we got together, and we’ve still got a lot more to go. I know you’re scared, so am I, but we need to focus on the patient, and not each other. I promise you, I will come back to you in one piece. And I know you’ll fight to get back to me and Christopher.”

“Damn straight,” he forced out through the lump in his throat, burying all his fear and locking it up. Buck was right; they couldn’t afford the distraction, and they’d have to get used to this if they were going to be together. “Okay, on three, we just need to turn him enough so you can start compressions.”

Swiftly, the two men flipped the patient over, cringing at the sound of the branch creaking under their combined weight. There was a wet spot of blood right on his torso, but it didn’t look like a deep wound. Still, it was bleeding heavily. 

Buck slowly made his way up the man’s torso as Eddie headed backwards. 

It was a very awkward position, to be pressed against the cliffside holding the man down, but Buck needed to be able to get in a stable enough position so he could effectively push on the patient’s sternum. Eddie couldn’t do it from overhead, despite having the better position.

That’s where his long legs came into play. Buck was able to stretch out and press them to the rock below Eddie’s feet, keeping his weight off the man.

“Starting compressions.” 

With one push, the branch rocked in place, making Buck freeze. Eddie just shook his head, signalling him to continue. “Just keep going, I can hear the sirens. We just need to make sure this man starts breathing again. The harnesses will be enough for us.”

So Buck did. Eddie held the man tightly against the tree as Buck counted out loud, vaguely musing that this was the most interesting rescue he’d been a part of. And that included CPR underwater during the tsunami.

“Diaz! Buckley!” 

The sound of Chimney’s voice had both of them snapping their necks upwards to look at them. The Asian man was staring skeptically down at them, Bobby and Hen following suit. 

Of course, it would be just their luck that the 118 show up an hour away from their base station, on their first date, which their team knew nothing about.

“Uh...hi guys?” They could hear Hen snort, but Bobby's all-business tone had them focusing on the patient between them.

“Sending a basket down to you, what’s the patient’s status?” 

Eddie put two fingers under his nose, relieved when he felt the light gusts of air. “He’s breathing now, still isn’t conscious though. We had to administer CPR but he didn’t lose a pulse. There’s a superficial scratch on his abdomen.”

“Think he landed on his stomach, Cap,” Buck chimed in. “Probably internal wounds too.”

The basket came down carefully, and using their precarious grip on him, they managed to load the patient in, heaving and stomach-swooping.

“Pull him up!” Buck yelled upwards, collapsing forward as soon as the basket started ascending. Eddie realized that the position had probably put a lot of strain on his left leg.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, just need a second,” he panted, digging a thumb into his calf. Eddie leaned down as much as his harness would let him to pull his boyfriend’s leg towards him. He dug his own fingers into the tight muscle, brow creasing at the knots he can feel.

“I think we’re done with hiking today. Let’s go back up and get some rest, okay?”

“I’m sorry our date got ruined,” Buck whispered, closing his eyes.

“Nah, it didn’t. Neither one of us would’ve been able to leave that man there, and you know it. Just one of the many things I admire and love about you.”

Buck looked up quickly before stealing a small kiss. “Bobby’s going to be so pissed we didn’t tell him.”

“They don’t have to know yet,” Eddie suggested slowly. Not that he wanted to hide it, but this was their first date, for God’s sake. They could do without having anyone critically watching them. It wasn’t a crime to want something for themselves.

Buck quirked an eyebrow in surprise but agreed. “Think I’m ready to climb back up. Let’s get this over with.”

“Why is it always you two?” Hen asked as they climbed over the sides of the cliff, immediately helping pull them up the rest of the way.

“Not our fault,” Buck laughed as the two untangled their harnesses. Eddie could see that he was limping a little and both of their clothes were stamped slightly with dirt. Nothing they couldn’t brush off.

“Well, you did a good job, boys.” Bobby came over as the paramedic checked them out. “Still think you should’ve left it to when you had a team backing you up.”

“To be fair, on all these calls, Buck and I are the ones to go down anyway,” Eddie pointed out, distracted by the look of Cael looking past everyone to find someone specific. “I think Cael’s looking for us,” he said to Buck, who was taking off his gloves.

 _Again_ with the gloves.

“Oh, yeah,” Buck grinned, kneeling down so he was in Cael’s line of site. The wolf spotted him immediately, shooting forward to weave in between Buck and Eddie excitedly, howling with joy. 

Hen and Bobby laughed as Chim jumped back, hiding behind Bobby. “Holy sh-who is that?”

“This is Cael, he’s our ambassador today,” Eddie laughed as Cael licked Buck’s face then turned to him, butting his legs.

Laura came forward then, having followed the wolf. “He was worried about you two, restless as soon as you disappeared. Sorry you guys had to interrupt your d-”

“It’s okay! We’re happy to help!” Before she could finish the sentence, Buck was on his feet cutting her off loudly, eyes practically bulging out of their sockets. Highly amused, Eddie discreetly shook his head at the guide out of view from his team who were staring at Buck like he’d lost it. Laura’s mouth formed an ‘O’ shape, a twinkle in her eye.

“Oh-kay then,” Chimney drew out, looking skeptically at them. Hen was staring flatly, and Bobby’s eyebrows were just raised.

“What are you guys doing all the way out here anyway?” Their teammates' faces went a little dark, which spoke of the nature of the last call. They probably had lost people and Eddie almost regretted asking.

“We were on an all-hands-on-deck apartment fire this morning, and just wrapped it up. We were about to leave when dispatch let us know about this call and to be advised that two off-duty firefighters from the 118 were already there,” Bobby explained.

“Yup, that sounds like Maddie.” Buck chuckled at his sister’s meddling, rubbing a hand through the wolf’s fur. Eddie’s hands itched to take another photo of this sweat-rumpled Buck who was giggling with the wolf like they were sharing an inside joke.

“Nah, the 144 was about to respond, but we told them we got it,” Hen shrugged, before continuing. “As kickass as Maddie is, she wouldn’t request us specifically. But on the brighter side, you just won me 50 bucks for betting that it would be you two idiots.”

“I thought you’d be at home with Christopher,” Chimney admitted.

“He’s with Abuela today, insisted on a sleepover with her.” Eddie left out the part where Christopher had stared at the both of them, clearly expecting them to spend every single second of the time he wasn’t there with each other. Buck grinned up at him, probably thinking along the same lines. 

“Okay, let’s get the patient transported. As fun as this is, we’re still on the clock. We’ll see you two next shift,” Bobby gestured to the patient that was now coming to. For a minute, they’d completely forgotten that the 118 were yet, on a call.

Eddie and Buck waved to the firetruck and ambulance as they backed out, letting out a sigh of relief once they were out of sight.

“Haven’t told them yet?” Laura asked, amusement coloring her tone.

“Trying to keep this to ourselves for a minute before they pounce with another bet,” Eddie shook his head, easily picking Buck’s hand up again as they turned back to the guide.

“I think we’re ready to go back, what do you think?” Eddie asked his boyfriend, who was trying desperately to hide the faint lines of pain on his forehead. “Actually, not asking. Let’s go.”

Buck mock-glared at him but there was a hint of relief in his gaze.

“So, who’s Christopher?” Laura piped up as Cael led them back down the trail.

Eddie predicted Buck’s reaction before it even happened. Like always, the younger man _unfurled_ at the sound of Christopher’s name, his entire body lighting up with a different kind of joy. Buck always held the exact same enthusiasm towards his son and it was again, another one of those things that made Eddie fall in love with him all over again.

Sure, it would’ve been easy to say ‘my son’ and leave it at that but then he wouldn’t get to see Buck chattering on with the guide like he was doing right now.

“He’s Eddie’s son, and my best friend,” Buck was saying when Eddie tuned back into the conversation.

“Technically, he’s _our_ son, and I thought I was your best friend.” Buck’s eyes shone a little brighter at the reference to Christopher as theirs, but the kid had been for a long time now. Buck was practically his second dad.

“How many times do you want to go over this, Edmundo? Christopher’s my little man.” His boyfriend brushed him off, much to the amusement of Laura. Even Cael seemed to be laughing at him, canines stretched and peeking out from his strong jaw. 

“Now I know you’re just using me for my kid, Buckley.” 

“Glad you caught on!” Buck had a reply ready for everything, and for Eddie to even attempt to argue with him was quite frankly (although entertaining), a waste of time.

“You know…” The tour guide began, “Cael and I can’t even tell that this is your first date.”

Eddie turned to Buck, eyes softening when he saw a tinge of pink spreading across Buck’s cheeks. 

“We’ve been a family before we even decided to give dating a shot,” Eddie told her, squeezing his boyfriend’s fingers to push the words into him. He knew Buck doubted his place sometimes, but Eddie would happily spend his entire life reminding him. “What do you mean Cael can’t tell?”

“Usually, he spends these romantic dates pushing two people together with his nose,” Laura laughed, scratching the wolf’s head. “We have no idea where he picked it up from, but we figured it was a pattern after a few weeks of seeing random people getting shoved together. That’s why he takes point on these hikes.”

Cael wagged his tail in agreement, pride wafting from the animal at the clear adoration from the tour guide. He came back around to them, nudging at their clasped hands to make his point.

“A gentle soul,” Buck said, ruffling the wolf’s fur. “True romantic at heart.”

“Like you,” Eddie snorted, kneeling to pet him too.

“I’m not the one who brought my boyfriend to this hike, so if anything, he’s like _you_. See, he’s even got your canines.” Buck grinned at him, startling a laugh out of Eddie. “Surprised me today, Diaz.”

Eddie smiled at him, pleased that it’d gone well. Still, their day was far from over.

He checked his watch, seeing that they were now running an hour behind which, on a Friday afternoon in LA traffic, was easily going to turn into 2-3 hours. 

They thanked Laura and said one more goodbye to Cael, who whined sadly when he realized they were leaving. To hopefully ease the pain, they ended up taking a few more pictures with him and the tour guide. 

“Thank you guys for what you did for that man today. I hope I see you back here, maybe with your son!”

“Don’t worry about it. Thank _you_ for helping out today,” Eddie replied with a genuine smile. Christopher would absolutely _adore_ this place, and it was exciting to think about both his son and his boyfriend playing with their new wolf friend.

Before they climbed into the truck, Buck pushed him against the car and kissed him. Pressing his adoration against Eddie’s mouth, he lifted his hands along the sides of the truck, bracketing his head between them.

“Hey,” he whispered as they parted for breath, brushing a fingertip down the laugh lines on the right side of Buck’s mouth, the ones that caught him hook, line and sinker. Buck beamed at him, looking happier than Eddie had ever seen him. The thought burned a little brighter in his chest.

“Thank you for today, sweetheart. It was great,” he said, brushing a thumb along his bottom lip. His blue eyes blazed with incessant joy and Eddie felt pride flush through him at being the one to put it there.

“I’m glad you liked it but it’s not over yet. I’ve got a few other things up my sleeve,” Eddie grinned, gently pushing Buck away. “And we should get a move on before we’re late.”

“There’s more?”

“Of course there’s more.” He kissed the back of his boyfriend’s hand before they both climbed into their respective seats. Starting up the car to let it cool down from the hours spent sitting in the sun, Eddie sighed in relief as the cold air started to quell the humidity that had built up inside. Buck laughed at him but hummed happily as the AC effectively cooled down their sweat-sticky bodies.

Both their phones buzzed with a text in the 118 group chat, identifiable by the flash of the notification across his OnStar screen.

“You really need to change that, by the way.” Buck pointed out. He always found it creepy how Eddie’s phone connected immediately to his car but it made it so much easier to put on music or whatever else. He didn’t usually have anyone in his truck anyway. “It’s Bobby, he says Marcus is gonna be just fine, maybe a little confused. They found an ID on him and called his family. We got to him just in time,” he read off his screen. That was good, the man had gotten extremely lucky.

“Didn’t think that would happen on our first date. Glad he’s okay though,” Eddie said.

“I don’t know about you, but that was one _hell_ of a rescue,” Buck grinned, hands waving wildly in front of him in an endearing way that just screamed _Buck_ , which never failed to put a smile on Eddie’s face, even if he was a little exasperated. 

“Evan. We literally had to give a man CPR with a tree trunk as a makeshift backboard,” Eddie deadpanned, and honestly after all this time, he probably should’ve been used to his partner’s view on what was classified as an _awesome_ _rescue_. Then again, Buck was always full of surprises. “And to be fair, Cael was also one of the heroes of the hike. If he hadn’t scented blood, we wouldn’t have found him.”

“True but the tree was also a very _good_ backboard that didn’t cause us the least bit of trouble. Even Bobby was impressed.” Buck pointed out, and Eddie...really couldn’t refute that, because Bobby really _was_ impressed. To be honest, even he was impressed with his and Buck’s ability to work effortlessly even without proper equipment.

Even though they were probably going to be enduring one _hell_ of a lecture when they went back to work on why they should never again attempt to perform CPR dangling on two ropes and hanging off the side of a cliff without a completely solid surface underneath them. 

The park rangers were quite grateful though, so that was something. They’d even given them multiple free vouchers to come back, which Buck took excitedly, rambling about how they could bring Christopher. Eddie was more than happy to take them again, but the prices weren't exactly affordable for many re-visits. Not that he wanted to be counting the money spent, because Buck deserved everything in the world, but they had to be careful either way.

“I can’t believe you actually took me on a _wolf hike_ . Led by an actual _wolf_. How did you even know those even existed? In _LA_ nonetheless?” Buck asked, curiosity peaking in his tone, and Eddie instantly avoided his gaze, a red flush crawling up his neck and burning the tips of his ears. 

“Just...saw an ad,” Eddie responded smoothly, knowing that Buck could tell he was lying but knew he wouldn’t call him out with how tentative the words sounded coming out of his mouth. 

“An ad, huh?” Buck repeated quietly, and Eddie carefully took a peek at the man now sitting beside him once again in his truck, looking down at his lap with a bashful smile on his lips. 

_I know you love animals, so I couldn’t resist._

“Yeah,” Eddie said instead, coughing in an attempt to quell the sudden awkward tension between them, eyes lifting to the time displayed through the small screen beside the speed meter of the car, cursing under his breath when he read the numbers glaring back at him. 

“ _Shit_ , we have to go.” Eddie turned the keys in the ignition fully, quickly tugging the gear shift into ‘drive.’ Glancing at the time again, as if staring at it in a panic will make it turn back a few hours, Eddie quickly back out of the parking space, hastily pressing buttons on his phone for the nearest Taco Bell. 

They had to go slow at the start though, because there were still pedestrians around which made Eddie squirm with impatience. They could see people walking as the truck rumbled out of the park, where the trails were paved with asphalt, and most of them were accompanied by kids.

“Wait, are we on a schedule I don’t know about?” Buck reached up hastily to grip the handle above the passenger side door as Eddie practically tore out of the entrance and down the so-far quiet streets. 

Streets that were definitely going to be a _bitch_ to drive through when they drove more towards the city. 

“In a sense, yes. Which means I will apologize beforehand, because we’re about to head to Taco Bell and stuff ourselves before we go to our next destination. We’re going to have to skip the lunch plans, unfortunately," Eddie said, eyeing the map on his phone that was directing him to a Taco Bell 8 minutes away, right near the entrance ramp to their highway. 

“I do love anything Mexican,” Buck smirked, turning to waggle those damn eyebrows at him, and Eddie seriously wondered how was it that anyone could survive being a driver with an Evan Buckley in the passenger seat and _not_ jump him? 

Still, the line was so cheesy and horrible that Eddie had to laugh. “My mother’s Swedish, so technically only half-Mexican, babe,” he mused, eyes drifting to the man sitting beside him, looking not the least bit perturbed. 

“And it’s a _very_ good half. Good enough to _eat_.” Buck’s voice lowered sultrily, eyes looking up at him innocently through his lashes.

Eddie had to grasp onto the last bit of self-control he had tethered to his already non-existent willpower to not swerve their car into a ditch somewhere, and shove Buck into the backseat of the car and press him into the leather seats. 

He reminded himself that _Christopher_ sat in those seats, and that getting arrested for public indecency wasn’t on the agenda for the day, which marginally helped in calming the desire burning in his gut. 

Knowing their luck, it’d be Athena to come arrest them.

“Buck, do you know what you just-” Eddie croaked out, eyeing the _three_ minutes still left on the Google Maps screen on his phone. That was the remaining amount of time until he could safely stop the car in a drive-through, which meant three minutes until he could _melt himself into a pile of goo Buck will later drive home in a cup-holder_ with the way their conversation was going. 

“Oh, I know _exactly_ what I said, _Edmundo,_ ” Buck smirked, making an _obscene_ gesture with his hands as he licked his lips, and it was honestly a miracle Eddie had not driven the car into a tree by now. Buck had just casually talked about _eating someone out_ and expected Eddie to concentrate. 

The absolute _tease_. 

Thankfully, Buck managed to behave himself for the rest of the three minutes, allowing Eddie to safely drive them to the Taco Bell drive through. 

_“Hi and welcome to Taco Bell. What can I get you?”_

“Hi. Um, can we get two chicken quesadillas, two 7-layer bean burritos, two beef quesaritos, a large pack of nacho fries, and two large cups of water? Oh, and an orange juice?” Eddie wasn’t quite sure why Buck turned to look at him weirdly at that, an amused glint in his eyes. 

Had he gotten Buck’s order wrong? Because Eddie could have sworn that he always went with - 

_“Is that all?”_

Eddie repeated in an affirmative, narrowing his eyes when Buck seemed to be biting his lower lip to keep from laughing. 

What did he do?

Driving to the next window to wait for their order, Buck leaned an elbow against the center console to stare up at Eddie adoringly, looking even more amused. 

“Okay, why are you looking at me like that?” Eddie asked cautiously, knowing it couldn’t be anything dire judging from the way Buck seemed to be holding back a grin threatening to stretch across his face. 

“Oh, you’ll see.” 

A bored-looking worker handed over their order in a paper bag before passing their drinks in a carrier, which Eddie carefully took to avoid dropping in his pristine truck. Buck quickly took the drinks and placed them in the cup-holders beside him, keeping his water with him and Eddie thanked the worker before driving off, pressing on their final destination saved in his Google Maps app on his phone. For this, Eddie had disconnected his maps from the car’s inbuilt system, not wanting to ruin the surprise.

“Are you going to tell me what was so funny earlier?” Eddie asked, keeping his eyes on the road in front of them but could see Buck’s lips tipping up in amusement from the corner of his eye. 

“It’s just - you ordered _orange juice,_ ” Buck chuckled, and Eddie was about to ask what the hell was so funny about that, when realization dawned on him. 

He ordered orange juice on _instinct_ , because it was _Christopher’s_ go-to drink. 

“I really love the dad side of you,” Buck grinned, taking a sip out of his cup of water, and Eddie’s eyes couldn’t help but follow the movement of his throat around the gulp. “It’s endearing as much as it’s hot.” 

Now this, just added on to the many reasons why Eddie loved Buck with every fibre of his being. He never separated Eddie and Christopher into separate units, because Eddie came _with_ Christopher, and vice versa. 

Many others often couldn’t distinguish that, but Buck understood and accepted their dynamic as easy as breathing. In fact, _Buck_ himself pushed more for time with Chris, knowing that he’d get to see Eddie at work.

“But what are we even going to do with the extra juice?” Eddie groaned, eyes darting to the drink in question quickly, but Buck only shrugged, not at all concerned. 

“We’ll drink it. _Cuál es la fruta que más se ríe?_ ” Eddie almost mistook the brakes for the accelerator at hearing those words fall from Buck’s smooth tone because _what the fuck?_

“Are you actually secretly fluent in Spanish and didn’t tell me?” Eddie’s eyes widened, turning to quickly give Buck a ‘what the hell’ look before returning his gaze to the road. 

“I may...or may not have familiarized myself with some jokes to tell your abuela. She seemed to really like that Spanish joke book Christopher gave her for her birthday. So I memorized some of it,” Buck mused, picking up a piece of the chicken quesadilla to hold up in front of Eddie’s face, encouraging him to take a bite. 

Biting into it and letting out an appreciative noise at the heat, Eddie chewed thoughtfully, deciding to humour his partner. 

“ _Cuál?_ ” he hummed, squinting his eyes as the sun’s rays reflected through the windows in an uncomfortable manner, reaching up to put down the sun visor. The Spanish sounded awkward on his tongue, but the blinding smile his boyfriend gave him suddenly made it all worth it.

“ _La naranja, ja, ja, ja…_ ” Buck grinned, lips twitching around a piece of fry he was dutifully shoving into his mouth when Eddie snorted. 

“You’re absolutely ridiculous.” 

“Taco dirty to me.” Buck cackled, laughing harder when Eddie reached up a hand to blindly swat at his shoulder. “Hey! Careful - I’m the one _feeding_ you, Diaz. Be nice.” 

“And doing a terrible job at it. I’m pretty sure I’ve only had _one_ bite of my quesadilla while you’ve been having a mini feast over there.” Eddie knew Buck could see the mocking glare he was sporting, lips curving upwards as Buck laughed mirthfully. 

“I’m sorry my lord, forgive me for I have sinned,” Buck snickered, holding out a smaller piece this time, and Eddie suddenly had a wicked thought cross his mind. 

Buck wasn’t the only one who could be a _tease_. 

Without warning, Eddie closed his mouth around the thumb and index finger held out in front of him, tongue swirling around the base of Buck’s thumb purposefully. He grazed his teeth lightly along the delicate skin before pulling the morsel into his mouth.

He moaned at the taste of the food, biting the inside of his cheek at the laughter bubbling up in him at the choked disbelief wafting off the man next to him. He chewed slowly, making sure to swallow in a manner that had his Adam's apple bob invitingly, knowing it was one of Buck’s weak spots. Eddie didn’t even take his eyes off the road as he accomplished his task, suppressing the large grin that threatened to break his game. 

There was a strangling sound from next to him, a badly disguised cough that quickly turned into a full-on choking spree. 

“Something wrong, babe?” Eddie turned to blink at the man beside him sweetly, making sure to widen his eyes in a ‘doe-like’ fashion that Buck loved to complain about how it made him terribly _weak_. He didn’t use it often, reserved as he was, but he found that he could be brazen with Buck, a comfort level he hadn’t had before. 

Buck was staring at him, eyes unbearably _wide_ , hand still held out in front of him and jaw slackened in shock. His legs were suspiciously shifting open to accommodate more space in a certain area. 

Oh, he was absolutely _winning_. 

“Mind giving me another piece? I’m starving over here. That sauce is absolutely _heavenly_.” Eddie let out another deep sound, running his tongue over the side of his mouth where he’d deliberately made sure to get some sauce. He flicked his tongue out to lick it away, feigning a look of complete innocence. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Buck closing his eyes and muttering what sounded like prayers of a swift death under his breath. 

“Yeah. Sure,” Buck said hoarsely, the bag rustling again in his hands as he held out a fry instead, clearly thinking that it would be a safer choice. 

Eddie loved proving people wrong. 

He didn’t play the exact same game with this bite. Instead, he bit off part of the fry first, licking his lips to get some of the nacho dust off. 

“The nacho dust is probably the best part of Taco Bell fries,” Eddie commented as he gripped Buck’s wrist, feeling his pulse pound beneath his fingers. Taking a cursory glance in all the mirrors, he quickly pulled Buck’s fingers into his mouth for the last part of the fry.

The amount of salt on the piece made him want to wince a little, but he kept up with his game. Keeping his eyes on the road, Eddie smirked at the sound of Buck’s strangled whimper and sharp inhale. From whatever precious little facts he knew about Buck in...sexual terms so far, he loved being marked and went pliant the second Eddie’s teeth nipped at him. 

So he pulled that trick out again, biting teasingly at the tips of his boyfriend’s fingers and sucking lightly one last time before retracting. There was no way they could continue to safely play this game with traffic picking up.

“Are you sending me to an early grave?” Buck rasped, hands now full-on _shaking_ , goosebumps running along his skin making the sparse hair on his arms standing on end. 

Eddie just laughed, abandoning the last of his revenge because there were at least two cars with kids in them with their faces plastered to the glass to stare up in awe at the truck. “You’re not the only one that can tease.”

Buck scoffed, holding out another piece of the quesadilla. This time, Eddie ate it normally, a relative calm settling over the sexual tension choking the cab of the car. 

“Ready to tell me where we’re going now?”

“LA” was all Eddie would offer in answer, and in his opinion, even that was pushing it. Buck only groaned, sinking down slightly in his seat. He had thought the moment of silence was Buck sulking on his lonesome, before he spoke again, this time in an almost reverent tone.

“ _Wow_.” 

Eddie turned to see what had Buck suddenly sound so _awed_ , and felt his own breath catch at the sun setting before them. His boyfriend’s eyes were completely transfixed, his skin now a lovely shade of bronze from the beams of light cascading through the window, and Eddie knew they just had to make a pit stop. 

Checking the highway signs, he spotted one for a scenic site just 3 miles ahead, and quickly turned on his blinker lights to switch lanes. 

“Have we arrived?” Buck asked, noticing that they were changing lanes, and Eddie shook his head. 

“No, but that sunset is practically calling our names.” Eddie shot Buck a knowing smile, knowing that he had made the right decision when the latter’s lips spread into an automatic grin. The traffic would clear some by the time the sun set, so it was a win-win situation really.

Ignoring Google Maps screaming at him to make a U-turn in the middle of the highway, Eddie followed the signs to a wonderfully placed platform that only had two cars parked in the limited spaces. Slowing down, he pulled up to a spot further away from the two, reversed and threw the truck in ‘park’ before turning off the ignition. 

He grabbed the rest of their take-out and gestured for Buck to follow him. The evening breeze was cool on their skin, ruffling their hair as they lowered the back latch to hop into the trunk with their food. Eddie resolved himself to storing extra blankets in his truck for unplanned moments like this, knowing Christopher likely wouldn’t appreciate the cold, hard metal beneath them.

The scene before them had even the guaranteed best views of the top restaurants in LA quaking in shame. The rich colours of lavishing orange and yellow were laced together in a brilliant showcase of ferocity. Streaks of crimson ink brushed across the sky, leaving behind flaming gold hues accentuating its vibrancy. 

Eddie allowed himself to immerse himself in this moment, accompanied by the gorgeous figure of his boyfriend beside him and losing himself in the ardorous atmosphere as they savoured the last remaining light of today. He took the last of his food from Buck, eating slowly to draw this moment out. After the excitement of it all, he was definitely starving.

“I can’t believe we were just on the most amazing wolf hike, then saved a man by giving him CPR against a precarious tree trunk, drove through Taco Bell, and almost got off on your absolutely sinful way of eating that I will absolutely get you back for. Now we just happened to stumble upon one of the best viewing spots in the city to watch a _sunset_. You truly are magical, Eddie Diaz.” 

Eddie turned to his companion sitting beside him, leaning in to press a messy kiss on Buck’s cheek at the almost wistful tone, smiling cheekily. 

“And I’d gladly do it all again,” Eddie murmured, leaning sideways to bump their shoulders together, feeling Buck shaking as he chuckled. 

He didn’t know how long they had turned to admire the sunset again, but the next time Buck spoke, it was in a manner that had Eddie furrowing his eyebrows in concern at the depth of emotion clouding his voice. 

“You know, you’re making it very hard to top the date we had today.” Eddie quickly turned to face Buck again, forgoing the sunset painting a colourful canvas before them. He frowned when he noticed how the man was staring at his lap, his lower lip worrying between his teeth as his food lay forgotten on the side. 

“It’s not a competition, Buck. It’ll _never_ be a competition - not with me,” Eddie said softly, reaching a hand out to place over Buck’s to try and ease the tension. “I just thought you deserved a few grand gestures; I wanted to make this special, treat you like you deserve to be treated.”

“I know. That’s not what I meant.” Buck turned his hand so that his palms faced up, interlacing their fingers. Lifting his head up, Eddie was taken aback at the raw emotion shining in his eyes. 

“Today has been...so _perfect_. Even the whole saving lives part. It’s just so _us_ , and I really meant what I said before as an observation, and not as a goal I needed to force myself to surpass,” he confessed, and Eddie squeezed their clasped hands tighter, encouraging Buck to go on. 

“I just...I always thought that I needed to make an impression, you know? Especially on a first date when I usually don’t even know the person that well. It’s always an exercise to perform perfectly. But with you…” Buck trailed off, his smile suddenly turning timid, placing his other hand on top of Eddie’s, the warmth of the gesture spreading through even to the tips of his toes. 

“Suddenly it’s more about having fun than looking good while doing it.” Buck said quietly, eyes turning misty, and Eddie felt a lump forming in his throat. 

They were both learning to open up more, now that they were permanent fixtures in each other’s lives, trying to be the best possible role models to Christopher. Eddie knew that there was a lot that Buck wasn’t saying, that it would take time and effort to get to a point where they completely bared their souls to each other. But he also knew that the words offered in the unguarded space between them were a truthful start. 

“It just kind of hit me, you know? That you could have had us eating pizza and watching reruns of _Say Yes To The Dress_ and I would have also said ‘yes’ in a heartbeat. Because it doesn’t matter what I’m doing, as long as I’m doing it with _you_.” 

Feeling his own eyes clouding with tears that were on the verge of falling, Eddie lifted his head up to look Buck right in the eye, seeing the glistening of tears that mirrored his own. 

“I feel the exact same way.” 

Their entwined hands created an anchor of consolation, and Eddie made sure their eyes didn’t break apart from where they were locked together. He circled a thumb across Buck’s knuckles in solace, a seclusive smile on his lips. 

“You are _more_ than enough, Buck. And I am _proud_ to be with you. Every part of you. You deserve...so much, and it kills me that I can only offer you the bare minimum sometimes.” Eddie’s lips twitched playfully at the end, adding on, “your once-in-a-while high-maintenance dramatics never fail to drive me up the wall, Buckley.” 

Buck let out a choked-off laugh, pulling out of Eddie’s hold to swipe the back of his hands against his cheeks, wiping away the tears that had spilled free. The smile on his lips seemed to break free from its previous shackles of uncertainty, the curve of his lips quickly turning teasing. “Okay, I’m starving, let me eat now.”

Eddie’s mouth dropped open at the words, more shocked at the sudden change in topic than anything else, even as he dried his own eyes. “Excuse me, I’m the one who’s been driving all day. If anyone’s allowed to be starving, it’s me.” He said in stride, unwrapping his burrito indignantly. Buck snorted around a mouthful of his quesarito.

They talked about everything and nothing as they ate, leaning into one another as the night fell around them. The streaks of paint splattered across the sky’s canvas blended with gray and black to form the beginnings of the night sky, speckled with the promise of stars. The clear night afforded them a glance at the waxing crescent moon, still not at it’s full brilliance.

“You don’t usually see the stars this early all the way in the city,” Buck remarked, wiping his hands on a napkin as he tilted his head upwards to stare at the faint traces of light dotting the sky.

“We’re lucky to see them at all, to be fair,” Eddie said, wrapping an arm around his boyfriend’s shoulder to pull him close. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Buck angled his head upwards to capture Eddie’s lips in a soft kiss.

They didn’t talk after that, watching the world quietly from where it hummed happily with life. The sun had lowered well beyond the horizon, and had it not been the shrill sound of a text notification coming from his phone, Eddie would have forgotten that they had one more stop to end their day. 

He jumped out of the back of the truck, quickly throwing all their trash wrappers into the take-out bag and urging Buck to get into the car again. His poor boyfriend was beyond confused but complied with Eddie’s rushing, looking slightly bemused.

Turning the keys in the ignition once more, Eddie breathed in deeply to clear his eyes of any remaining tears, gripping the steering wheel in front of him with determination. 

“Buckle up, Buckley. The day’s not over yet.” 

“Now I know you made that pun 'cause you thought it was funny.”

“Shut up.”

* * *

Despite their unplanned pit stop to admire nature’s beauty,, Eddie managed to tear through LA’s insane traffic in a manner that had them reaching Echo Park Lake just in time for the last part of their date. 

“What are we doing here?” Buck was clinging to his seat-belt, looking a little freaked out at Eddie’s rash driving.

“Having our Disney moment,” Eddie huffed, grabbing Buck’s hand and dragging him through the crowd of people. He wanted to make sure at least this one thing went completely right.

Buck went along with him without any further words, chuckling as Eddie swore under his breath at all the _slow_ people around, blocking their path.

His friend was waiting right at the oak tree near the registration center, looking bemusedly at them as they weaved their way through the crowd. 

“About damn time, Diaz,” he teased, extending a hand Buck’s way as Eddie rolled his eyes. “Hi, Nick Miller.”

“Evan Buckley.” Buck smiled at him but looked confusedly at Eddie, who was now bouncing in place. They didn’t have the time for in-depth introductions, and he was trying to suppress the impatience that he knew was painted all over his face.

“Okay, here’s protective gear, and your boat’s completely already set up for you. Just you two, a little away from everyone else. Follow the route I outlined and you’ll be fine.” Nick passed them bright blue life jackets, which they slipped on easily. He pointed out a lone swan boat in the far corner, smirking cheekily at Eddie as he gave them quick directions.

He ignored it.

“Let’s go.” Eddie grabbed Buck’s hand again, tossing a quick ‘thanks Nicky!’ over his shoulder before pulling him towards the boat excitedly. His boyfriend’s laughter rang out next to him, effectively drowning out Nick’s yell of ‘that’s not my name and you know it, Edmundo!’ putting a grin on his face.

“What’s going on, Eddie?” Buck asked as Eddie stopped him, looking wide eyed at the four lanterns in the back of the boat before he spun Buck around, pleading with him.

“Uh...okay, we’re going to climb into the boat, but try your hardest not to look at the back.”

“I’m not sure if I like all these secrets,” Buck muttered but complied, carefully getting into the other side of the boat. 

“Just a little longer, babe, I promise.” Eddie got in after him, and dragged him in for a light kiss before settling his foot on the pedals. “Wait, this won’t trigger your aquaphobia or bother your leg any more, will it? Fuck, I didn’t think-”

“Eddie!” Buck exclaimed, still laughing. “Chill! Why are you so worried? It’s just me, love.”

He relaxed a smidgen at that, even though he firmly believed that Buck wasn’t _just_ anything. He deserved nice things and he deserved to be treated like someone special. Eddie wanted to do that, but despite the fact that Buck had loved what they’d done before, he still felt rusty at the entire ‘going-on-dates’ thing.

“Besides, we surfed a firetruck together, remember? And that was before my full medical clearance.” Eddie hadn’t known that Buck was only cleared _after_ the fact, and to put it lightly, he’d been seething mad. Buck had gotten an earful from him about that, much to the delight of Christopher who watched his Bucky pout and frown playfully during his entire spiel. It was kind of hard to be mad when your son was giggling and defending his best friend at the same time, so Eddie had given up the fight with one last scalding glare. 

“Still mad at you about that,” Eddie said primly before gesturing to the pedals. “Let’s get going then. We have places to be.”

“You know…” Buck started as they pedalled out to the alcove Nick had directed them towards. “We’d probably be at these places _much_ faster if you just told me where we’re going.”

“It’s a surprise.”

“Please?”

“Nope. We’re literally two minutes out. You waited all day, you can wait a little longer.” He flicked a look over to Buck who was, once again, pouting. Eddie smothered a smile at how much he looked like Christopher when he was sulking.

Another minute of pedaling brought them into a relatively lone area, where the nearest boat was pretty far away from them. Eddie made a mental note to give Nick a _very_ hefty tip for this.

“Okay, you can look in the back now.” Buck twisted in his seat instantly, endlessly eager, mouth falling open as he took in the lanterns in the back. He then looked all around to see the other boats with flickering lights, the people dotting the shore with their own lit lanterns.

“Is this...are we-are these what I think they are?”

“Yeah,” Eddie laughed, pulling two markers out of his pocket. “There’s a lantern festival today. We’ve got two types of lanterns, sky ones and water ones. We can decorate them too...I thought it’d be nice to release them.”

“Like _Tangled,_ ” Buck whispered, looking at Eddie with so much reverence that it made him flush. 

“Yeah,” he said softly. _Tangled_ was one of Buck and Christopher’s guilty pleasure movies, and this was Eddie’s way of including Christopher on their date too. 

“Have I told you I love you today?”

“Can’t hurt to hear it again,” Eddie scoffed playfully, going willingly with the grip Buck had managed to twist in his shirt. “I love you, too.”

They wrote as much as they could fill on the water lanterns, but Eddie caught his boyfriend staring critically at the sky lantern. “What’s wrong?”

“This one needs to be extra special.” Buck took another second before rolling his bottom lip into his mouth and writing something on the rice paper lanterns. His tongue was peeking out and the look was so endearing and adorable that Eddie wasn’t even paying attention to what he was scribbling on his own lantern. 

When he looked down, he noticed that he’d written two names.

_Buck and Christopher_

A wide smile spread across his face. Yeah, he was grateful for these two the most, and he wished for this forever. It’s all he ever wanted and it seemed fitting to write it on his lantern.

A sliver of apprehensiveness slithered through him, a startling cold to the warmth of the day. On the surface, he knew that Buck wasn’t going anywhere. Neither of them took those three words lightly, so Eddie knew Buck meant them, just like he did.

His insecurities though...they weren’t ready to listen to the fact. 

“Ready?” Buck’s voice cut through the spiral he was no doubt about to go on. Eddie shook it off and beamed at him, wanting to just _be_ in this moment with him.

“Yeah. On three?” They’d agree to show each other their lanterns at the same time.

“1...2...3!” Buck counted down, quickly flipping his lantern over. They burst out laughing when they each saw what the other had written.

Buck had written _Eddie and Christopher_ in small, neat letters. Eddie laughed and intertwined his fingers with his boyfriend’s, pressing a kiss to the knuckles.

“I’m lucky I have this. I want it all with you, Buck.”

“It’s all I’ve ever wanted, too,” he whispered softly. “Thank you for today, Eddie. This was...I don’t have another word outside of magical.”

“I think the magic is about to start.” Eddie pointed to where they could see the first lanterns rising up. Surrounded by the city as they were, they weren’t as bright as they should’ve been but there was something ethereal about being a part of this. The LA lights twinkled merrily behind the lanterns rising upwards, and the stillness of the lake was now disrupted by the few water lanterns casting a lustrous light that shimmered along the surface. 

There was only one piece missing to make this the _perfect_ date.

_Music._

Eddie couldn’t hear anything outside of the slow lull of the water around them, and the soft murmur of other people looking up in awe as their wishes wrote themselves across the night sky. As relaxing as it was, Buck and Eddie were going to have their Disney moment, never mind that they were two grown men.

It was only because he was a parent to a Disney-obsessed kid, Eddie told himself as he scrolled through his phone to find the playlist.

Buck’s head snapped over to him as the soft strains of ‘I See The Light’ filled the air between them, a wider grin splitting his face. “Pulling out all the stops? Didn’t know you were such a closet romantic.”

 _All those days watching from the windows  
_ _All those years outside looking in  
_ _All that time never even knowing  
_ _Just how blind I've been_

Eddie laughed, tugging Buck as close as he could to press a kiss to his temple. “Nah, but we can’t have our Disney moment without the iconic song.” 

Shifting together as close and as best as they could in their seats, the two firefighters looked up at the brilliant fixtures of lights floating around as the song resonated around them, enclosing them in a bubble of well-fitting lyrics.

 _Standing here it's all so clear  
_ _I'm where I'm meant to be_

“Ready to let ours go up?” Eddie asked, picking up his lantern. There was an LED light inside of the structure, which let them light up the rice-paper lanterns. Buck and Christopher’s names stared back at him vividly.

Buck snapped a picture of both of them first, then a selfie to commemorate this part of their date. “Now I am. I think we just need to unhook this from the weight, right?” There were two attachments; one was a very heavy weight, like the one that came with those birthday balloons. The other was a wooden pallet tied to the balloon with a clear string.

“Yeah, the wooden base won’t hold it down, but it’ll help the park people find the rest of the lantern, so they don’t litter.”

“Smart,” he remarked. They unhooked them, holding onto the respective strings.

They let the lines go, watching their names rise up to join the others.

 _And at last I see the light  
_ _And it’s like the fog has lifted_

As if the lanterns could read between the lines, Eddie watched, fascinated, as they twirled around each other in a familiar dance. His own lantern was bumping into Buck’s occasionally in a teasing manner, and he couldn’t help a soft chuckle when Buck’s lantern seemed to push back against his playfully. 

Then, picking up their water lanterns, the two men pushed them lightly into the water, alternating their gaze between all four lanterns as they floated away. The water lanterns were marked more with things they were grateful for, like their families. Still, Buck and Christopher’s names were written on the side of Eddie’s because they were the one thing he wished for and appreciated every day. From what he could see, Buck had done the same.

Speaking of appreciation, Eddie picked up his phone once more, remembering the photos he had yet to admire that Laura had graciously taken for them during their hike. The music was still playing on his lockscreen and he quickly worked on typing in his passcode and pulling up the photos app, before clicking on the first photo their guide took. 

It was them beaming at the camera, Cael seeming to grin happily too. Buck’s smile was wide and pure, eyes twinkling merrily and Eddie looked...content. It was a look he hadn’t seen on himself for a very long time.

“We look adorable,” Buck mused, leaning into him further to see his phone screen, and Eddie quickly moved his arm so that the phone was in both of their viewing vicinities. Swiping through, he chuckled when he realized Laura greatly downplayed what ‘a few’ meant. 

When he reached the last couple of photos, his thumb paused over the screen, eyes widening at one of the candid photos staring back at him. 

It was after Cael had accidentally toppled Buck over. His boyfriend had his head tilted back, mid-laugh, and Cael was sprawled across him, tongue sticking out happily. His own practiced smile had eased into a more carefree one, his face a little blurry as he turned his head to make sure they were both okay. 

Swiping his thumb on the screen to see the next one, Eddie heard Buck’s breath hitching as the photo came into view, his own heart swelling at the sight. 

Laura had managed to capture the moment when Eddie had moved closer to Buck, one hand on his back and the other wrapped around Cael’s mid-section. 

There was an affectionate smile on his lips, relaxed and abiding, the corners of his eyes crinkling in a true show of euphoric bliss. Buck’s smile was brazenly _radiant_ , both of their eyes half-closed as they angled their foreheads together, huddling close. Cael was sitting joyfully between them, head tilting up and eyes watching them with his own wolf-like amusement, one black paw on top of Buck’s thigh and his tail resting comfortably in Eddie’s lap. 

“We’re framing this one, aren’t we?” Buck murmured, leaning down to gently bump their heads together, and Eddie let out a quiet sound of agreement. He quickly pressed the heart button on the bottom of the screen, adding the photo to his favourites and making it his lock screen. 

After a while of admiring that photo, their emotions still strung high, they scrolled through the other ones they had taken. There were some funny ones when one of them was caught mid-gesture or mid-look, and Eddie laughed when he accidentally took a picture when Buck had decided to look up, the slight blur making it look like he had four eyes. 

The tranquility of the night was a delightful and peaceful way to end their hectic day. Eddie barely registered the song being played again, remembering that he had put it on loop and realizing that they had been too caught up in scrolling through the photos. 

“You know, if we weren’t in danger of falling into the water, I would ask you to humour me for a dance,” Eddie mused, leaning his head against the sturdy shoulder beside him, nuzzling his face into the soft fabric. The rumble of Buck’s laughter sent goosebumps along his skin, and a gentle weight landed on the crown of his head as Buck leaned his head on top of his. 

“I think we should give the first responders a break, shouldn’t we?” Buck murmured, running a gentle hand along Eddie’s forearm, and interlacing their fingers tightly when he reached his hand. Humming in an affirmation, Eddie smiled when the next words sounded through the speakers on his phone. 

_And the world has somehow shifted  
_ _All at once everything looks different  
_ _Now that I see you_

“We can’t dance but,” Eddie slowly disentangled himself from Buck’s hold to sit facing each other. He smiled when his boyfriend only looked at him in confusion, pouting slightly at the loss of his weight beside him. The pout quickly turned into a beaming smile when he realized what Eddie was doing when he clasped both of their hands together in front of them. 

The darkening night further emphasized the luminating specks of golden light floating above and around them, creating an ambient aura of tenderness. 

_All those days chasing down a daydream  
_ _All those years living in a blur_  
 _All that time never truly seeing  
_ _Things, the way they were_

Eddie quietly sang along with the lyrics, tightening the hold on their hands. Their gazes had not left the magnetic pull that kept them from straying away from each other, both their eyes reflecting the depth of their feelings for each other. 

The feeling of love really did hit differently when he was sitting across from the man whose life so effortlessly entwined with his own. As much as their love had ignited sparks, there was truly something special about moments like this, where they each immersed themselves in the true intimacy of the relationship they had paved since the day they met. 

“ _And it's warm and real and bright_ ,” Buck whispered softly, the words shaking Eddie to the core at how serious Buck had sounded saying them. He almost seemed to be making a point, drawing out a sharp breath from Eddie when he realized that Buck really had noticed his uneasiness from earlier, and was trying to alleviate whatever thought that had plagued him from before.

Just like that, the ice that had previously inhabited his veins gradually thawed, leaving behind an all-encompassing warmth that embraced their pocket of intimacy. Eddie closed his eyes briefly to allow the warmth to wash over him in a gentle tide, carrying away the cold unease. The lights from the other lanterns cast an ethereal glow along the ripples of the water their boat was bobbing on, the moon providing its own light to bask the world in a soothing notion of comfort. 

“ _I love you_ , Evan.” The words came out unbearably tender, mirroring all the other times he had said them, but still casting an entirely new meaning all the same. “I love you. _Everything_ about you _._ So much that it _hurts,_ sometimes.” 

“Right back at you, Eddie,” Buck whispered just as affectionately, leaning forward to touch their foreheads together. 

It had become their thing, tilting their heads against one another’s, providing a sense of peace and serenity that was theirs, and theirs alone. They wrapped themselves up in one another, looking out at little slice of heaven around them.

The outside world could _wait._

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading all of this xD and for all the love on the first part! Comments and Kudos welcome :) Suggestions for next parts too!
> 
> Title comes from _I See the Light_ from the Disney movie ‘Tangled,’ with lyrics so fitting that we honestly couldn’t help ourselves 
> 
> Couple of things: This is purely self-indulgent and we just know that Eddie Diaz is a closet romantic so. It's super cheesy and our teeth hurt from it but it's fine. The wolf hike and the lantern thing are real experiences, we've just taken a little creative liberty here. It's adorable, y'all can look up [Project Wildsong](https://www.projectwildsong.org/) too.
> 
> Catch us on Tumblr at [@zeethebooknerd](https://zeethebooknerd.tumblr.com) and [@ao3theskyisblue](https://ao3theskyisblue.tumblr.com/)


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